Is Kirk now "emotionally compromised" - aftermath? (Spoilers)

In the film, Kirk made some decisions during the "Harrison Incident" that will have a lasting impact on a lot of people, both on the Enterprise, Earth, and even on the Klingon homeworld. It certainly forced him to recognize that his actions have consequences on others, just as he had to face such feelings in the original series episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", where he had to kill his best friend, Gary Mitchell, to prevent him from destroying the Enterprise... it showed him the burden of command. I wonder ... will we see him he have to wrestle with second-guessing the decisions he made during the incident, and do you think that will that be explored in later stories (books, comics, next movie, etc.)?

by requesting the Enterprise be assigned to Marcus' secret mission, Kirk sent his crew on a mission that ultimately got them killed, and had serious repurcussions to many people living (and dying) on Earth. Do you think, following the incident, Kirk would need to deal with a lot of second guessing his decisions, and feelings of guilt? He did, after all, turn to his crew and say, very sincerely, "I'm sorry." For a man who bragged at the beginning of the film that he had "never lost a single crewmember", such a death toll in a single incident that he was in command during must have a significant psychological impact on the young captain? Might be an interesting area to see writers explore - how does Kirk come to terms with the decisions he made, the deaths that happened while he was in command, and push out from beneath those feelings, to learn and become the great captain he is destined to be...?

Those are all good questions Cadet49. I'm thinking we may not see the wrestling itself (on film) but we will see the man it makes him. There will probably be some reflection shown, assuming the next movie is less full on action. When he's being dressed down by Pike he's like a cocky school kid in the principle's office.. I don't think we will see that again. Prime Kirk is brimming with confidence but it's tempered by experience and we just saw NuKirk get that experience.

And really he was the perfect fall guy for Marcus, already under suspicion with discipline issues. He couldn't send say, Bradbury, out there because Bradbury was a much older man. Giving the mission to the loose cannon would enable him to shift the blame very easily.

And yeah Kirk should feel like shit because of this.. but it's not like it would have gone down any better with another Captain.

It may be covered in IDW's comics (although in the nuTrek comic 'verse, Kirk did lose people as far back as issue #1). Sadly there aren't going to be any novels set in the new movie continuity, at least not for the forseeable future - which is a huge shame, since that's the medium such issues can be explored best.

A few years ago a role-playing game was produced based on Serenity. Unfortunately, the licensing deal did not include Firefly so it could only include anything that was mentioned or seen in the movie, but not from the TV show it was based on.

We could see him becoming more like the Kirk we see in TOS, still a maverick but much more mature and cautious with his crew. It's a good thing that we see that he deeply cares for them and that we are shown that the crew is a family and the Enterprise is their home.